The Lipscomb Bisons will participate in four indoor meets before the Atlantic Sun Conference Indoor Track Championship, and nine outdoor meets before the Conference meet.

For the indoor season Lipscomb will attend two meets in Nashville hosted by Tennessee State University. The first meet of the indoor season is the Ed Temple Classic this Sunday at Tennessee State.

They will also travel to Southern Illinois University for the SASF Invite and to Indiana University for the Hoosier Hills Invite. East Tennessee State University will host the 2009 A-Sun Indoor Championships in Johnson City, Tenn.

“It’s a good indoor schedule for our program philosophy,” said head coach Bill Taylor. “We really focus on peaking at the end of the outdoor season, so the indoor season is a great time to get back into race mode and see where we are.”

The outdoor season opens with three relatively low-key meets at Savannah State, Birmingham-Southern and Austin Peay, before amping up with highly competitive meets at the University of Alabama, Duke, Western Kentucky, Memphis, Drake and the University of Georgia. The 2009 A-Sun Outdoor Championships will be hosted by the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, Fla.

“I really like our schedule this year,” said Taylor. “We start the season pretty low-key, which will allow us to adapt to outdoor racing again and play with events, and then we transition to some terrific meets with the kind of competition that will help our athletes take their performances to the next level.

“Alabama was a great meet last year, so we look forward to going back down there. Western Kentucky University and the University of Memphis’s meets are new to our schedule. I think they will be great opportunities for our athletes. Duke is a huge and incredible meet. It continues to build our big meet experience. Drake Relays is a very prestigious event and should be incredible for those that qualify. Georgia is the last meet before conference and is the perfect tune-up meet.”

The Mt. Sac Relays and the Stanford Cardinal Invite, both in California, are also on our schedule.

“Like the Drake Relays, only those that qualify will have a chance to participate in those two extremely competitive meets this year,” said Taylor. “The opportunity is available to any of our athletes that excel to get that experience.

“Last year we took some athletes to the University of Oregon for a meet. I am hoping to make that an every other year trip, especially as our program improves rapidly each year. “

One of Taylor’s goals is to upgrade the schedule each season.

“Every year I look to upgrade our schedule to mirror the advancement of our program and to provide the opportunities our athletes need,” said Taylor. “Our schedule this year provides opportunities for all of our athletes at every level and our top athletes on the team can strive to reach the marks that get them into the best meets in the nation.”